Precambrian Creatures: The First Animals

The very, VERY first animals aren’t really talked about much, and that’s a shame. What existed before the Cambrian explosion? What could these first Precambrian Era animals possibly look like? And WHAT is the oldest animal fossil?

Wikipedia Articles for the animals with you want to learn more about them:

Sources Used:

(Non royalty free) Videos used:
Note: All videos should presumably fall under fair use, as not only is a small fraction of the video used, but my video and the means I use these videos falls under education.

[Keirnoth]

This feels like a YouTube 2010 era vid. It's short, straight and to the point and isn't over edited. I like this style... makes it so much easier to watch and listen.

[clearlight]

Aw, I miss the Precambrian. I had my first ever best friend back then. We would hang out and absorb nutrients. I miss him.. her.. it.

[alejandramartinez]

I took a class on the paleobiology and paleoecology of invertebrates, and my professor was actually the one who discovered the Funisia fossil!! We even got the opportunity to see up close Ediacaran fossils! So that was pretty awesome :) Its so mind-blowing so many interesting creatures lived on this Earth at one point.

[keksidy]

To hell with returning to monke, I'm going back to sponge

[LuisAldamiz]

From underwater couch potato to modern urban technologically savy couch potato, evolution of couch potatoes is truly amazing!

[robvegart]

I remember my first pet. It was way back in the Cambrian, His name was 'Trilly'. He was a Trilobite. He would bark, but only bubbles would come out. I tried teaching him to roll over, but he would just float over. He was my best good friend.

[cbl]

The aspect I love the most of primordial life is how they're like almost unmodified visual representation of mathematical formulas, like they were truly living exponential ratios made into flesh, there was even this one plant (not sure that is even applicable, given how alien it is to a modern plant) where every bud was actually a microscopic version of the whole plant itself, so it was effectively unfolding copies of itself perpetually, which while on paper sound neat must become one hell of a pain when not life threatening mutations to the genome start to occur. Probably also why these lifeform doesn't exist anymore, they probably weren't the most stable too.

[exiverence]

The Precambrian era always intrigued me over the other eons because it’s so alien-like.

[MrBluMango]

1:58 didnt expect to see the Founding Titan here

[monsieurcommissaire]

These earliest life forms have an eerie enchantment to them. They are exuberant, deeply strange and often unexpectedly endearing.

[NunoGloop]

As you said we cannot know exactly what the first organism ever is, but I like richard dawkins’ theory, as he is one of the worlds most renowned evolutionary biologists. He thinks its most likely the first organisms were simply self replicating chemicals, and eventually those self replicating chemicals began competing for resources. Once competition begins, natural selection begins.

[Nomorewarsforisrael]

Thank you for blurring the Funisia, I was watching with my kids.

[VictorianTimeTraveler]

I have a Funisia fossil in my collection.
It is strange that somehow such an ancient animal somehow wound up on my freaking bookshelf

[wcdeich]

There is evidence Dickinsonia moved because we find trails of Dickinsonia "footprints" left on the seafloor with a dead Dickinsonia at the end of the trail. Also, Charnia was the 1st time geologists & paleontologists all agreed a fossil was a definite multicellular organism before the Cambrian. Other Ediacaran fossils were found before Charnia, but people did not agree what they were.

[mollyN]

That was terrific! Light humor goes such a long way in making a subject less intimidating... thank you!

[kingjiggleth]

5:30 so you're telling me that SpongeBob has been living in a pineapple under the sea for BILLIONS of years
and Mr. Krabs still called him a kid
no respect for your elders
smh

[punchthem]

you have a great youtube career ahead of you, just keep grinding my man

[MegaJesseman]

I knew we probably started out as bacteria, but it never really occurred to me just how simplistic we were after the bacteria began evolving. It is so wild to imagine we used to be blobs that couldn't even move and it took a long time for us to evolve from just being blobs. It's beautiful to see how life started out. How simplistic we once were. And how we are no different than being an animal. We all evolved from something into something more complex. Kind of makes me wonder if someday there will be an animal that is similar to humans.

[stevoplex]

"Yeah, flotation is groovy. And easy. Even a jellyfish will tell you that. But jellyfish been floating so long and is so slack, it ain't got a bone in its jelly back". (Jimi Hendrix improvisation on the song "Power of Soul.")

[soupervisor]

The video ended so abruptly, I lost track of time while watching it!! Thank you for your research and the video!!